Overnight parking ban on key arterial streets
The City's annual snow-related overnight parking and 2-inch snow restrictions are now in effect on a number of the city's arterial streets. The overnight parking ban covers about a dozen main priority routes—approximately 107 miles of city streets—from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. between Dec. 1 and April 1, whether or not it snows.
Violating the overnight parking ban can be costly; motorists disregarding this posted seasonal tow zone face a minimum $150 towing fee in addition to a $50 ticket.
A separate ban on parking exists on another 500 miles of main streets when there is at least two inches of snow on the street, no matter the time of day or the date. Cars violating this ban are ticketed and relocated.
The parking bans were instituted to keep motorists from parking on those critical routes during the winter in the event of a sudden major snowstorm. Once a storm is underway, very few people chose to move their cars and illegally parked vehicles prevent Chicago's main streets from fully being plowed and salted. In fact, as the snow piles up against those cars, the streets become progressively narrower as the storm continues and plowing forces more and more snow toward the curbs.
The need for this parking ban was dramatically illustrated during storms that hit Chicago in December of 2000. This was the coldest, snowiest December in Chicago history. Arterial streets without cars were quickly plowed curb-to-curb, but only narrowed driving lanes could be cleared on streets with parked cars that were hit with nearly two feet of snow in the first 72 hours.
National Insurance Crime Bureau to know of tows
The City of Chicago's Department of Streets and Sanitation and the Department of Revenue have come up with several new initiatives with regard to the City's towing program. The program enhancements include a new partnership with the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), an expansion of the City's current payment plan and an extension of the amount of time a car is held at the pound before being disposed of. The NICB is a non-profit organization representing 95 percent of all insurance companies and acts as the investigative arm of the industry.
The City's new partnership with NICB will allow it to notify its member insurance companies of all towed vehicles which are kept in City pounds for more than 24 hours. This includes stolen vehicles, abandoned vehicles, vehicles damaged in accidents, impounded vehicles, traffic tows and booted vehicles.
The Department of Streets and Sanitation is beginning to electronically transmit this data to NICB. The data will allow NICB's member companies to speed their claims processing and therefore the return of vehicles to their owners as quickly as possible.
Approximately 40 percent of all towed stolen vehicles go unclaimed from City pounds. The new partnership will allow insurance companies to claim these vehicles and may reduce the payment of claims.
Data from the City will also help alert insurance companies of potential insurance fraud in cases where people are falsely reporting their cars as lost or stolen. It will notify insurers of the status of vehicles before they are disposed of.
The City is also looking to expand both of its current payment plans. The Hardship Payment Plan would be expanded to include unemployment to the list of qualifying assistance programs. The City's General Payment Plan would be extended to motorists after they have been booted.
The City will also look to extend its hold on vehicles that have been booted and impounded from 15 to 21 days. It will also grant a 15 day extension to all impounded vehicles providing that vehicle owners request this extension during the initial 15 days.
With the extended time frame the City will be able to give motorists extra time to claim their vehicles. However, this extension means that space in the auto pounds will be further limited and may impact the City's ability to tow abandoned and other vehicles. Therefore, some of those vehicles may remain on the street for a longer period of time.
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